Hello, I am biking for exercise and I have a bit of a problem. I am on MDI, Novolog and Levemir. Yesterday my pre-exercise BS was 148. Biked for 30 minutes and felt ok. Then did some arm weight exercises. Tested blood sugar and it was 52…I still felt fine. Ate a few sweet tarts and tested 15 minutes later and was 63. What if anything should I do. I had eaten lunch 2 hours before biking. This is a stationary bike so I am at home. Eventually I want to go back to biking outside bike trails which are rigorous and 12 miles long, but have been afraid to do that. Any suggestions, help would be greatly appreciated.
1 Like
Though things have changed for me lately, I have found that the best way to exercise without going low or having extended lows is to do so when you have little-to-no bolus insulin on board. That Novolog shot that you took two hours before working out is likely active in your system for 4-5 hours – not full-strength, but enough to impact your BG when you exert yourself. My experience has been that eating a meal with very few-if-any carbs, therefore not requiring a bolus or just needing a very small bolus injection, reduces the risk of going low while exercising.
If you want/need them, save the carbs for a while after you exercise, and you may well see better results.
There’s a good book by Dr. Sheri Colberg Diabetic Athlete’s Handbook that goes through many different types of activities and suggests methods to better handle them safely, including examples of professional athletes and their strategies – The recommendations may not apply equally for everyone, but the information is quite informative.
I agree with @Thas. Avoiding exercising with a lot of active insulin on board is a good idea. On the other hand, exercise is a great way to make insulin work after a meal. You could also decrease the usual meal dose before your ride. If you wanted to experiment, try using the same before-exercise meal at the same time of day and vary the insulin dose. Log your results, rinse, repeat. Good luck! This is a solvable problem.
1 Like
Hi, @JoAnn2 –
You didn’t mention what you ate before your exercise – or how well your basal and ICR are tuned.
I like to use protein, carbs and fat to fuel my exercise. Have you tried snacking on dark chocolate (86%+), lower carb nuts (Spanish peanuts, pecans, macadamia and walnuts) and cheese?
Is there a reason that you didn’t ck your BG between exercises? When exercising, depending upon intensity, I generally ck my BG every 30-60 mins.
Which meter are you using? Have you compared it with a lab draw?